Epidemiological Project Involving Children in the Court (EPICC)

Project EPICC (Epidemiological Project Involving Children in the Court) is funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA; R01DA034538). The purpose of Project EPICC is to learn more about substance use, HIV/STI risk behavior, psychiatric symptom, and legal outcome trajectories of first-time offending, court-involved, non-incarcerated juveniles in the northeastern region of the United States. To do this, Project EPICC is following 400 dyads (juvenile and a caregiver/parent) over 24 months to complete a computerized assessment (every four months) of adolescent risk behaviors and family, community, neighborhood, and cultural factors that can impact their short and long-term outcomes. Information collected from the project will help guide the development of early public health interventions for court-involved juveniles at their first point of contact with the juvenile court system.